January 19th, 2012, 4:49 pm

The total cost to Orange County of a case in which a jury found that two
social workers lied to take away a woman's daughters is$10.6
million, according to a new audit.

The U.S. Supreme Court last yeardeclined
to hear the county's challenge toa
2007 jury award of$4.9
millionto the Seal
Beach woman,Deanna
Fogarty-Hardwick. With interest on that amount plus her
attorney fees, the total payout by the county was$9.6
million. In addition, the county incurred another$1
millionof its own
legal costs in the case.

The figures come from a first-ever performance audit of the county's
risk-management operation, which process lawsuits and workers'
compensation claims against the county. The audit, performed by the
county'sOffice of
the Performance Audit Director, comes before theBoard
of Supervisorsat
next Tuesday's meeting.

The Fogarty-Hardwick case is the most expensive liability claim ever
paid by the county and the only one to exceed the county's$5
millionself-insurance
limit. It contributed to a precipitous increase in the county's
liability claims costs over the past couple of years, as payouts for
personal damages leaped from$1
millionin fiscal
2009 to$14 millionin
fiscal 2011.

The cost of the Fogarty-Hardwick case grew in the four years after the
initial $4.9 million in damages was awarded by an Orange County jury in
2007. Interest and attorney fees steadily accrued as the county pursued
appeals all the way to the highest court in the land.

"It was pretty amazing -- they succeed in taking a $5 million award and
doubling it for us," saidShawn McMillan,
Fogarty-Hardwick's attorney. "In my view, the taxpayers in Orange County
should be pissed. This never should have gone this far."

Throughout the case and afterward, the county'sSocial
Services Agencymaintainedthat
its social workers did nothing wrong.

“I am certain and I stand by my social workers that they did not
fabricate, they did not suppress any information and they did not
perjure themselves,” saidDr.
Michael Riley, the agency's director,toldthe
Watchdog last year. “If they had, I would have dismissed them.”

But ultimately it was the Board of Supervisors who decided to plow ahead
with the appeals.

"We were in one of those situations where we say 'Do we cut or we keep
moving forward' and we were being advised by our legal counsel to keep
moving forward," said supervisorJohn
Moorlach. "You sit there and you say 'Heck, this all doesn't
make sense.' "

"You have your department head trying to be as persuasive as possible,
(saying) 'This is not the character or quality of the work of these
individuals, it's being mischaracterized, we need you to support us,' "
Moorlach added.